Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
The Westchester County Board of Legislators' Committee on Health, chaired by Legislator Jewel Williams Johnson, convened at 11:22 AM on October 26, 2026, to receive a presentation from the Andrus nonprofit organization on its 'One Health' model. Presenters included Andrus President and CEO Dr. Corinne Lurry-Mabin, Advancement staff member Mary Grace, and Tori Shaw, Program Director for Children/Youth Services from the Department of Community Mental Health. Vice Chair Barr was also in attendance. The committee explored how this holistic framework is being implemented on Andrus's 110-acre campus in Yonkers.
Andrus One Health Model: Dr. Lurry-Mabin presented Andrus's adaptation of the CDC's One Health framework, which connects human, animal, and environmental health. Andrus is taking the framework further by integrating a 'food and mood' component, using produce from their farm and greenhouse to improve nutrition and behavioral outcomes for youth in residential and day programs. Chair Johnson opened the meeting by praising the One Health model, stating that recognizing the interconnectedness of a child's life is 'the direction we should have been moving in all along.' The presentation covered a draft logic model, including inputs (the campus, clinical interventions, education), activities (farm-to-table programs, recreational therapy, animal care), and short-, mid-, and long-term goals (improved emotional regulation, sleep, nutrition, and reduced inequities). Specific projects discussed include an interactive play garden featuring 'Ziggy's Rock' (a historical Native American meeting place) and 'Library Fields' (outdoor learning spaces on wooded trails).
Integration with Sanctuary Model: Tory Shaw asked how the One Health initiative would align with Andrus's existing trauma-informed Sanctuary Model. Dr. Lurry-Mabin clarified that One Health serves as the overarching umbrella framework, while Sanctuary remains the core trauma-responsive practice for both staff and youth.
Replication and Scalability: Vice Chair Barr questioned how the model could be replicated by organizations without access to a large campus like Andrus's 110 acres. Dr. Lurry-Mabin explained that specific components, such as nutrition changes, access to local parks, and community partnerships, could be adopted piecemeal by other organizations.
Capacity and Staff Challenges: Dr. Lurry-Mabin shared that Andrus has a capacity of 152 youth (82 in residential treatment). She discussed the increasing acuity of youth referred to the program, the difficulty of the work, and the organization's commitment to supporting staff, many of whom have experienced their own trauma. Chair Johnson acknowledged the profound challenges of this work, noting that healing from trauma is a lifelong exercise, and praised the staff's dedication as exemplary.
Good morning, everyone. I'm legislator Joel Williams Johnson, Chair of the Board of Legislators Committee on Health. Today is October 21st. I feel like it's going very fast, October. And I am marking myself as in attendance as well as committee vice chair Barr. And we're officially calling the meeting to order at 1122 AM. Super excited today. And Alfima is two. I'll speak for her. Committee coordinator. We've been trying to get this on the books for a while. Our guests today are Dr. Colleen Lori Maven as well as Grace, what's your last name? Mary Grace. Mary Grace. Okay. I know. Mary Grace. Okay. And we also have with us from our Department of Community Mental Health, Tori Shaw, who is the program director for children, youth services. So both uh Dr. Corinne and Mary Grace are from the wonderful Andres campus in North Yonkers. And we have the opportunity to learn more about Andres' One Health Model, an approach that has uh been described as innovative and groundbreaking, but that also feels remarkably intuitive. Anders has long been an important resource for children and families in Yonkers, particularly in addressing the mental and emotional health needs of young people. But what makes one health model so compelling is that it recognizes that a child's well-being cannot be addressed in pieces. Mental health, physical health, family stability, school, environment relationships, and the broader circumstances of the child's life all intersect. In many ways, that is the direction we should have been moving in all along, seeing the whole child, uh understanding the whole family and addressing the conditions surrounding them, not simply treating one symptom at a time. As the chair of the committee on health, I'm very pleased that we have the opportunity today to explore this model, understand what makes it different, and consider what we can learn from Andres as we continue working to strengthen behavioral and mental health supports for Westchester's children and families. And with that, I will turn it over to Dr. Carey. Hi, thank you. Thank you, legislator Jewel Williams Johnson. Um, thank you. I'm I'm truly just happy to be here today and grateful for the opportunity. Um, so um a little bit about Andres. Andrus, we are a nonprofit organization in Yonkers, where our headquarters are, and we have um two locations, one in downtown um Yonkers, and then we also have excuse me, have a third location and peak scale where we do outpatient mental health services uh for children and families. Uh so today I'm going to talk mainly about an initiative that impacts uh our campus. So children who are coming to us to uh who are enrolled in our residential treatment services, um, as well as children who are coming to our day program. So children who attend our campus programs or children who have uh behavioral and mental health uh challenges, uh, who um experience or are managing autism, children who've had uh trauma and and various adversities, and what we were looking to do as we continue to look at ways as to how we enhance and preserve the Andres legacy as we move to our centennial in 2028. We wanted to look at a way of how do we look at changing some of the outcomes for our youth, especially in residential. So given that we have we sit on this 110 acres, we were providing services and different components of the organization there for the campus. So we have residential, we have recreational therapy, we have um we have the clinical therapy, the individual and group uh uh supports, in addition to the our youth are learning about uh the environment and horticultural and environmental science, and what we wanted to do is to look at ways of how do we take some of that in addition to learning about um animals and the our use of animal assisted therapy. How do we take all of that and pull it together a little bit more seamlessly under one umbrella? Something that we are calling our Andres One Health model. Now, One Health is model is not new. It is a CDC framework, and we are taking the CDC framework, which really looks at the connections between animal health and well-being, environment health well-being, and human health and well-being, that they're all interconnected. So we're taking this CDC framework and building what we're calling our conceptualized framework where we're looking at taking it a step further as we uh think about environment health and then human health, looking at okay, how um how does food impact mood and behavior? So looking at farm to table approach, because we have a farm and we have a greenhouse and garden, really taking a look at how that truly impacts the um behavior and health outcomes for our children and residential, and uh particularly because they're coming to us with behavioral health and mood and behavior dysregulations, and there's been some research to show that mood and uh food impacts mood.